The breakthrough 1980s role Tom Hanks was told he had “no chance in hell” of getting
As much as it’s become one of the most overworn cliches around, the cream usually does rise to the top, which explains how Tom Hanks became an A-list star less than a decade after making his screen debut.
Every actor has to start from the bottom, unless they’ve got nepotistic connections, and Hanks got his nadir out of the way early. The role that makes him cringe and causes him the most second-hand embarrassment was his appearance on a 1980 episode of The Love Boat, which was also his first appearance on anything on any size of screen.
The same year, he made his feature-length bow in He Knows You’re Alone, following the well-trodden path of the countless other future superstars who cut their cinematic teeth in a shitty horror flick. It wasn’t the most auspicious way to introduce himself, but his breakthrough was only a couple of years away.
Hanks’ first part that gained him any sort of mainstream attention was on the sitcom Bosom Buddies, which ran for two seasons and almost 40 episodes between November 1980 and March 1982, but he’d already realised by then that he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a TV guy. However, he still needed the most important aspect of shedding that reputation: a major movie gig.
As it transpired, a guest spot on Happy Days, which aired in November of ’82, toppled the first domino. That was the first time he met Ron Howard, and he quickly befriended the show’s Richie Cunningham, kicking off a personal and professional relationship that would eventually span more than 40 years and five films.
Howard was making inroads himself, having ended a five-year wait for his sophomore directorial effort by helming Night Shift, which was released in cinemas less than four months before his path first crossed with Hanks’. He quickly set about putting together his third picture, and he needed a leading man.
Unfortunately, the studio wanted a star, and Hanks wasn’t quite there yet. Michael Keaton turned down the chance to play Allen Bauer in Splash, Bill Murray threw the script across the room when he was handed it, with John Travolta and Chevy Chase among the other recognisable names considered.
One day, the actor-turned-filmmaker’s assistant, who’d seen Bosom Buddies, suggested, “You oughta look at Tom Hanks.” The thought had never crossed Howard’s mind, and when he went to his paymasters at Disney to suggest the sitcom stalwart, he was quickly shut down, leaving him with the impression that he “had no chance in hell” of gaining studio approval, as he put it.
Nonetheless, he was granted an audition, and when he knocked it out of the park, Howard found himself “so excited to tell this young sitcom veteran that he was the lead.” It was only Hanks’ second movie, and his first lead, but Splash‘s strong reviews and big box office kick-started his ascension. When Big rolled around four years later and earned him his first Oscar nomination, he’d officially become undeniable.
